1inch Team Accused of Dumping, On-Chain Data Reveals Sophisticated Swing Trading Strategies in Large Positions

Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Ethan (@ethanzhang_web3)

A large sell-off labeled as "1inch Team" has once again sparked criticism.

Recently, the on-chain data platform Arkham's page showed that three wallets labeled as "1inch Team" collectively sold 36.36 million 1INCH tokens, worth $5.04 million. According to OKX market data, affected by this, the price of the 1INCH token briefly dropped by 16.7% to $0.1155, currently reported at $0.1164. Surrounding this sell-off, a question was quickly raised in the market: Is this really the project team itself dumping?

Looking solely at this sell-off itself, the outcome was not ideal. On-chain data shows that the aforementioned 1INCH tokens were mainly transferred to the related addresses in late November 2024. Based on the price at that time, the cost was estimated to be around $0.42, corresponding to a value of approximately $15.27 million. Before this sell-off, the price of 1INCH had already fallen back to around $0.14. Combined with the slippage impact due to the large transaction volume during the selling process, for this batch of positions alone, the actual loss may exceed $10 million.

Reference: The 1inch Team's Past Trading Style

Previously, the on-chain operations of the 1inch Team Investment Fund during multiple market fluctuations were regarded by the market as the actions of a "professional trading team."

As early as February to April, the 1inch Team Investment Fund had already begun accumulating 1INCH at low levels. At that time, market sentiment had not yet recovered, and 1INCH had been hovering around $0.2 for a long time. During this phase, the team invested a total of approximately $6.648 million, buying 33.19 million 1INCH tokens at an average cost of around $0.2.

However, this round of buying did not cause significant price fluctuations. What truly caught the market's attention was the concentrated buying in early July. From July 6th to 9th, the 1inch Team Investment Fund acted again, investing an additional $4.4 million in just a few days to buy 22.99 million 1INCH tokens. As buying pressure continued, the price of 1INCH rose from around $0.18 to $0.206, a stage increase of about 14%. During this period, the team transferred 3 million USDC to Binance and withdrew 1INCH in batches back to their own addresses. The related funds were not used up all at once, possibly waiting for opportunities and continuing to buy.

After July 10th, the pace of operations noticeably accelerated. On the afternoon of July 10th, the team again bought approximately 4.12 million 1INCH tokens for about $880,000, while simultaneously depositing 2 million USDT to Binance to prepare ammunition for subsequent trades. On the evening of July 11th, on-chain monitoring showed that the team likely bought another 11.81 million 1INCH tokens at a higher price range, with the transaction price already rising to around $0.28. By this point, the holdings of this address had once increased to 83.97 million 1INCH tokens, with a book value exceeding $23 million. On July 13th, the team continued to withdraw 6.334 million 1INCH tokens from Binance.

If we trace back to early February, the 1inch Team Investment Fund has cumulatively invested about $13.64 million since the beginning of the year, buying 55.85 million 1INCH tokens at a comprehensive cost of approximately $0.244. Against the backdrop of 1INCH's price surging above $0.39 in mid-July, these positions had already generated paper profits of several million dollars.

It is worth noting that the team was not "only buying and not selling." On the evening of July 13th, they began to realize profits on a small scale, selling about 904,000 1INCH tokens at a price of $0.33, exchanging them for $298,000. In an earlier stage, they had already sold some 1INCH in batches at prices around $0.28.

Simultaneously, the team also took profits on another significant position: the ETH bought in February at an average price of $2,577 had begun to be sold in batches above $4,200, with the ETH position alone already realizing millions of dollars in profit.

On August 11th, according to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the 1inch Team Investment Fund had begun to realize some of its earlier positions on-chain. Data shows that they sold 5,000 ETH at an average price of $4,215, exchanging them for 21.07 million USDC; simultaneously, they sold 6.45 million 1INCH tokens at an average price of $0.28, exchanging them for about 1.8 million USDC.

Looking at the cost basis, the aforementioned ETH was bought by the 1inch team in February this year at an average price of about $2,577; the corresponding 1INCH was mainly accumulated in July, with a comprehensive cost of about $0.253. Calculating only the ETH and 1INCH positions sold this time, the 1inch Team Investment Fund has realized approximately $8.36 million in paper profits.

Looking further back, the 1inch team's operational path on BTC of "buying against the trend and selling with the trend" is equally clear. During the period from February to March this year, they bought 160.8 WBTC at an average price of about $88,000 during BTC's correction phase and completed the liquidation in May when BTC approached the $100,000 mark again, overall realizing nearly $1 million in profit.

Combining the asset clues of BTC, ETH, and 1INCH, the on-chain operations of the 1inch Team Investment Fund resemble a set of capital strategies that have been repeatedly practiced: completing accumulation during market adjustments, continuously adding positions during the uptrend, and realizing profits in batches after prices enter a high range.

But This Time, Was It Really Them Operating?

It should be pointed out that comparing this large sell-off occurring around $0.14 with the past on-chain operations of the 1inch Team Investment Fund reveals: If this sell-off was indeed directly led by the team, then its execution method itself significantly deviates from its past trading logic. Whether in historical operations on BTC, ETH, or 1INCH, the team's more common practice was to realize profits in batches after price trends were confirmed, rather than concentrated selling in an obviously low-liquidity range.

Precisely because of this, some market participants began to question: Did this sell-off behavior labeled as "1inch Team" truly originate from the team or wallets directly controlled by them?

Subsequently, 1inch officially also responded to the related controversy. In its statement, it clearly stated that this sell-off did not occur in any wallet controlled by the 1inch team, entity, or treasury multi-signature, and the team cannot intervene in the asset allocation and trading decisions of third-party holders.

In other words, the association indicated by on-chain labels is not equivalent to actual control. Judging from the execution timing and price range, this sell-off is more likely from a third-party holder who is no longer under the project's control, rather than a shift in the 1inch team's own trading logic.

In a stage where liquidity is already limited, equating a single large sell-off with "team dumping" is itself an overly compressed interpretation of information. It ignores the natural disconnect between address labels and actual control after tokens have been in circulation for a long time.

Returning to 1inch itself. The official statement emphasized that this market fluctuation did not change its core business and long-term direction. Since 2019, 1inch's cumulative transaction volume has approached $800 billion, and even during market downturns, it can maintain a daily trading scale of hundreds of millions of dollars. The team also stated that it plans to revisit the token economic model this year to enhance overall resilience during periods of low liquidity and downturns. Against this backdrop, the discussion surrounding "whether the 1inch team dumped" resembles a misinterpretation amplified by a combination of on-chain labels, liquidity environment, and emotional interpretation.

However, even if it is ultimately proven to be a misinterpretation, this sell-off still constituted a secondary impact on the already weakening price of 1INCH in practical terms. Since the previous cycle high of $6, 1INCH has experienced a prolonged unilateral decline and is now hovering around $0.11.

On such a trend, the market clearly no longer has sufficient buffer space to digest any sudden sell-off signals. In such amplified sell-off events, those who ultimately bear the brunt of the emotional impact are often the ones with the weakest risk tolerance—retail investors.